One of my reader, Hal, asked some advices about his Hull tactic.

Can you help with my tactics?

My team is Hull City 17th in the Premier League, we play a 4-4-2

I will tell you my team instructions and give the number of clicks:

Mentality 12 (in the middle)

Creative Freedom 10

Passing style 8

Tempo 15

Width 15

Closing Down 13

Time Wasting 8

Defensive Line 15

Tackling Normal

Focussed Passing Down Both Flanks

Zonal Marking

Target Man Supply Mixed

Tight Marking Ticked

Playmaker Ticked

Counter Attack Ticked

I have a most players on global mentality except:
 My full backs on 9
My DC’s on 5
My Striker 1 (Finisher) 15
and my Striker 2 (Creative) 13

I have found I conceed a lot of goals even though I have a good goalkeeper in Myhill.

My defence:
 RB Stephen Kelly 
LB Masilela
 CB Gioda
 CB Anthony Gardner

My midfield is:
RM Geovanni
 LM Stephen Hunt 
CM Boateng (defensive)
 CM Sapara (attacking)

Upfront: 
Altidore (finisher)
Fleck (creative)

Well Hal, I had a look at your team and I think you should easily avoid the relegation, I’d try to give you some tips to improve your table.

First of all, Fleck and Altidore are 2 wonderkids and they will be great, for sure having 2 very young players upfront in your first season could be a bit risky, I know that Fleck can play well since season one, don’t know about Altidore, however they should be good to avoid the drop, as I said.

The rest of your team is average, apart from Sapara and Gioda that are really good.

These are my Thoughts about your tactic:

-Your mentality is too staggered, you start from 5 (CB’s) to 15 (poacher), 10 notches are too much, then there are too many holes in your team, try these settings:

cb’s 8

fb’s  10

Mc (def) 10

Mc 12

Wingers 12

Fc (creative) 10

Fc  (poacher) 14

Then match your closing down settings to your players mentality, lower your creative freedom to 5, except your creative striker (15)

No target man

Raise your time wasting to 10-11

Give Gioda direct passing (first notch of direct)

Try to avoid too many forward runs, they just disrupt your shape and a small side should always stay compact on the pitch, so no forward runs set  on often!

Your other settings could work but you could have to tweak them from match to match, notably your d-line, your tempo and your width, but here you should watch your matches and see what works and what doesn’t (extended way would be better!).

Remember, try to make some slight, logical tweaks and then see if your team plays better or not.

Hope this could help you.